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Municipal case ruling deferred for one year at May 31 hearing on home businesses issue of city councilor.

Story Highlights

In a recent hearing in Ruidoso Downs Municipal court, a city councilor was given one-year to remove his business from his home or file for a way to keep it there legally.

The news leaves several of his neighbors disappointed that they will continue to live with air conditioning and heating trucks moving in and out of the area, they said. Many of them thought the business would be gone after first the city planning and zoning commission denied Shane Walker’s application for rezoning and then, the city council in in January upheld the denial. Walker, who serves on the council, wanted to rezone the area of his home in Palo Verde Subdivision as C-1, neighborhood commercial, but neighbors argued that the area had been residential for decades and should remain R1, single-family residential.

They told the council they feared a zoning change would make the noise and traffic worse. One neighbor said he worried commercial zoning might draw body shops or other unsightly activities to a few vacate lots near his home. He pointed to many available lots already zoned for commercial use, contending the city has ample room to foster businesses.

Although the vote went against Walker, several councilors seemed sympathetic and contended that to thrive, the city must see change. At the time of the vote, a variance or conditional use was mentioned as a better way to resolve the case than to rezone an entire neighborhood.

Walker and his supporters argued that a small community such as Ruidoso Downs can’t afford to enforce zoning rules that put obstacles in the way of small businesses and hinder economic development. Walker recused himself from the council vote. At least one councilor said if the zoning laws do not allow granting of a variance or conditional use, they need to be updated and tailored to the city, not copied from the neighboring village of Ruidoso.

When Walker apparently made no attempt to cooperate with the city or to move his business, the case was referred to municipal court, a planning and zoning spokesman said earlier this month.

A spokesman for municipal court said Shane Walker’s case was heard on May 31, by Judge Ron Burton, an alternate for the regular judge, who recused himself. The hearing was conducted in response to a request from the now retired city planning director for a status update. Some type of agreement was supposed to be worked out to keep the business in the city, but that didn’t occur, a court spokesman said. The case dates back to 2015, when the municipal court first directed Walker to work out a solution and he subsequently filed for the rezoning.

At the May 31 hearing, Burton was granted a one-year deferment on the case to see if Walker can work out a remedy, such as a variance.

However, the city’s planning and zoning rules state that a conditional permit may be granted only if that use is on the list of previously included conditional uses, a department spokesman said. And a variance is to be granted only in cases of hardship, usually pertaining to some feature of the land that interferes with meeting requirements such as setbacks.

The section in dispute is along Harris Drive between East and West Streets. The rezoning that was denied would have affected 76 properties.